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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Whipflare
Image from Wizards.com

Whipflare
New Phyrexia

Reviewed April 3, 2012

Constructed: 3.67
Casual: 3.50
Limited: 3.25
Multiplayer: 3.75

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating

Click here to see all of our 
Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Whipflare

Global damage/destroy effects have always been the pride of Red, White, and Black, but each color always had its own spin on it. With Black, it's the whole "power at a price" deal. Black's willing to lose all of its creatures to kill off all of yours. With White, it's a challenge in breaking the symmetry. White wipes out creatures by its own rules, so the trick is to have creatures that follow the rules. With Red, it's all about the more damage, the better. If the board state doesn't look good to a Red mage, he just blows it all up and starts over.
Whipflare, then feels more like something White would do than Red. At the same time, it looks like something Red would very much like to do. People love running Vulshok Refugee because they can Pyroclasm with it on the board and then be the only guy with a creature left. Whipflare lets you do that with any artifact creature... or any creature with 3 or more toughness. I think Whipflare is a great card for all the same reasons that Pyroclasm is a great card, but artifact creatures are liable to show up in anyone's deck. I'd run Whipflare as a sideboard option, and only bring it in if I hadn't seen many creatures on the other side of the table that it couldn't kill.

Constructed- 3
Casual- 2.5
Limited- 2
Multiplayer- 3.5


David Fanany

Player since 1995

Whipflare
 
As you noticed from reading my review of Thraben Heretic last week (where I thought it could hit flashback spells!), reading things is important. Relevance to today: I forgot that Pyroclasm isn't in Standard and Whipflare is, meaning that there's a major opportunity for certain cards. Solemn Simulacrum, Ichorclaw Myr, Phyrexian Metamorph, and the like are even stronger than usual when this is the format's "fast and small" sweeper. Against everything else, though, this card is literally identical to Pyroclasm. You guys probably already know how good Pyroclasm is.
 
Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Whipflare which is a two mana Red spell that deals two damage to each non-artifact creature.  This is very similar to Pyroclasm with the added option to use in an artifact deck to have a one-sided effect, though naturally would require sidedecking it out against an opponent using primarily artifact creatures.  Overall this is an aggressively priced burn that can be a valuable addition to Red decks with or without artifact creatures as a response to swarm themes or just for early game board clearing.
 
For Limited this can be a double-edged sword, so timing is critical to get the most use out of the likely single copy you might have available.  As a card that can be both risky or even potentially useless depending on what kinds of creature you and the opponent control at any given time it probably doesn't belong in every deck.  Other Red spells make a better case for being splashed which leaves this for a more dedicated build with support removal and artifact creatures.  As it stands this can be picked fairly early in Booster for the potential it has, though useful against artifacts or higher direct damage choices take priority.  In Sealed it depends on the luck of the draw a bit and probably should be included when playing Red just in case it is needed, though can be left in the sidedeck without being a crucial error.
 
In Multiplayer using four copies of this in a deck designed to avoid the damage is definitely viable and such a low cost method of dealing damage to the entire field is a major asset.
 
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 3.0
Multiplayer: 4.5

John
Shultis
Phoenix
Gaming

       Welcome to the Pojo.com card of the day. Today we are taking a look at Whipflare from New Phyrexia. Whipflare is an uncommon red sorcery that costs one generic and one red mana. Whipflare deals 2 damage to each non-artifact creature.

      Whipflare. The artificer’s Pyroclasm. Ultimately, that is what it comes down to. If you build an artifact deck, this is your way of clearing some space. But, on the flipside, should you get matched up against an artifact deck, this is really just dead weight.

      Dealing two damage to each non-artifact creature is not as useless now that people are switching gears over to Werewolves, Zombies, Spirits, and Vampires (Oh My!). But it is still very limited if used against the Scars of Mirrodin blocks. Whipflare is still a highly played card in tournaments, and will continue to be so until it rotates out.
 
Limited: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Constructed: 4/5
Multiplayer: 5/5


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